Case Number 02949

THRONE OF BLOOD: CRITERION COLLECTION

The Charge

This is a wicked world. To save yourself you often first must
kill.

Opening Statement

The impact of Akira Kurosawa on western artists who chose to emulate him is
well-known. His works have inspired countless imitations the world over. The
west also had a big impact on Kurosawa as a filmmaker. While the great mass of
the Japanese public enjoyed his films, critics and other cultural elitists
sniffed that he was too western in his orientation, and not Japanese enough. In
cinematic taste he was heavily influenced by John Ford, the great American
director of Westerns. In literature and philosophy, he was heavily influenced by
such varied sources as pulp detective stories, the novels of Dostoyevsky, and
the plays of William Shakespeare.

Facts of the Case

In a time of civil war, Lord Tsuzuki (Takamaru Sasaki) of Spider's Web Castle
is under attack. Fujimaki, the hand-picked commander of his North Garrison, has
betrayed him, and has joined forces with rival Lord Inui. As the combined forces
of Fujimaki and Inui conquer Tsuzuki's outposts one by one, all hope seems lost
-- until two of Tsuzuki's loyal outpost commanders come to the rescue.
Commanders Washizu (Toshirô Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki) fight fiercely
and win the day against the traitorous forces.

As Washizu and Miki make their way to Spider's Web Castle, they must pass
through the dense maze that is Spider's Web Forest. In the forest they stumble
onto a mysterious woman, an evil spirit who knows the men by name. Before
vanishing into thin air, she tells the men that each of them has a great
destiny. Washizu is to be named commander of the North Garrison, while Miki is
to take his place as commander of the first fortress. However, even greater
glories lie ahead of them: Washizu will one day be the lord of Spider's Web
Castle, and later, so will Miki's heirs. The two men are shaken up by the
spirit's predictions, but laugh off the incident -- for the present. However,
when Lord Tsuzuki honors them both at a victory celebration, promoting Washizu
to command of the North Garrison and Miki to command of the first fortress, it
seems that perhaps the spirit knew something of their destinies after all.

Washizu is surprised when Tsuzuki comes to the North Garrison on an
unannounced visit to plot further strategy against Inui. Washizu's wife Lady
Asaji (Isuzu Yamada) decides that this is the time for Washizu to take destiny
into his own hands. He must kill Tsuzuki, she reasons, because if Miki takes
action first or if Lord Tsuzuki learns of the forest spirit's prophecy, Washizu
will certainly be destroyed.

And so Washizu throws himself into the tumult of succession politics and
power struggles in an attempt to solidify his control over Spider's Web Castle.
He thinks for a while that his position is secure; after all, when he consults
again with the forest spirit, she tells him that he will never be defeated until
Spider's Web Forest itself rises up to attack him.

The Evidence

Throne of Blood is Kurosawa's adaptation of Shakespeare's
Macbeth, but that description oversimplifies the scope and the dramatic
accomplishments of this film. This is no mere translation, no mere retelling, of
Shakespeare's story but a reconception that makes it fully Japanese, and fully
Kurosawa. Macbeth, with its story of ambition, betrayal, and power
struggle is a story that translates particularly well to the
sengoku-jidai, or period of civil wars, in Japanese history.

One particular change that Kurosawa makes to the story is the difference
between Macbeth and his Japanese counterpart, Washizu. Macbeth is ruthless and
ambitious from the outset, and has designs on Duncan's throne all along; Lady
Macbeth only strengthens his resolve at those key moments when it seems he might
falter. Washizu harbors no such powerful ambitions, apart from an occasional
grandiose daydream; it seems in his case that Lady Asaji must plant ideas of
ambition in his head and hatch the plans for carrying them out. As such, she is
a much stronger character here than in the Elizabethan version, much more
manipulative and sinister.

This difference in the characters of Washizu and Macbeth leads to probably
the greatest difference between Shakespeare's play and Kurosawa's film. Macbeth
is a schemer and plotter who is eventually undone by his own misdeeds. Washizu,
by contrast, seems like a man in over his head, forced into his situations by
fate and circumstance. Where Shakespeare sees the unfolding tragedy as a result
of character actions and decisions, Kurosawa sees the characters more as cogs in
a machine, working out the fate that destiny has decreed for them. As a result,
the film takes on a bleak and pessimistic tone that is unusual for Kurosawa's
films of the 1950s, but fits in very well with his darker films of the 1970s and
beyond.

Kurosawa further distances himself from the humanity of Shakespeare's work
by creating a very stylized setting. This film is heavily influenced by the
sparse sets and rigid character archetypes found in Japanese Noh theater.
Noh is a fairly rigid art form, using masks to represent characters as
generalized types rather than individuals, and using a very bare stage.
Movements of actors in Noh productions are dictated by the conventions of the
art form and are of necessity highly precise. Kurosawa uses touches like the
distinctive, simple Noh flute and drum music to further evoke this connection.
He never goes so far as to make his actors wear masks, but he does cause them to
operate in the context of characters more as types than individuals. This is
particularly true of Isuzu Yamada's performance as Lady Asaji; through carefully
designed makeup and tightly controlled actions she is the most obviously
Noh-influenced character in the film.

The actors inhabiting the characters will be quite familiar to aficionados
of Kurosawa or of Japanese cinema in general. Leading the cast, as one might
expect, is the great Toshirô Mifune, the explosive, athletic leading man
with whom Kurosawa collaborated on seventeen of his most memorable films,
including Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. The great Isuzu Yamada plays
Lady Asaji; her name is probably less well-known to western audiences than
Mifune's but she was one of Japan's leading female stars for a long period
beginning in the mid-1930s. Throne of Blood was her film with Kurosawa;
she went on to roles in The Lower Depths and Yojimbo. She is
greatly respected for a body of work that also includes many collaborations with
other great Japanese directors such as Inagaki and Mizoguchi. The challenge of
acting through her stylized makeup and within the narrow Noh-driven parameters
of her character is probably the greatest challenge faced by any actor in this
film, and she succeeds marvelously.

Several other Kurosawa regulars appear in this film. Miki (the Banquo
character) is portrayed by Minoru Chiaki, a face familiar as both the
"wood-cutting" samurai in Seven Samurai and one of the
bickering peasants in The Hidden Fortress. Perhaps more important to the
Kurosawa mythos is Takeshi Shimura, loyal retainer of Lord Tsuzuki, an
amalgamation of Macduff and Ross from the original play. Shimura was Kurosawa's
main leading man until Mifune exploded on the scene; in pictures prior to
Throne of Blood they appeared together as characters of equal status or
with Shimura as more prominent; a prime example is Seven Samurai, where
Shimura plays the noble leader of the samurai. Throne of Blood marks a
turning point, as Shimura takes a clearly subordinate role, and is relegated to
smaller and smaller parts in Kurosawa's films hereafter.

As usual, Criterion put a lot of work into the restoration of Throne of
Blood for this release. The high-definition digital transfer looks great for
the most part, with sharp contrasts, solid blacks, brilliant whites, and fine
gradations in between. The picture is mostly free of any digitally-generated
defects, although there does appear to be a bit of aliasing from time to time.
However, there are a lot of scenes in this movie that are shot in dense fog, and
these perhaps show some more artifacting than we are accustomed to seeing on
Criterion discs; there are some looks and textures that the DVD format still
seems to have a bit of trouble with, and fog seems to be one of those. For the
most part, however, any defects in the image appear to be related to the
condition of the original source material. There are pronounced scratches in
some scenes which surprise me that they made it through Criterion's digital
restoration process. Some picture grain is to be expected in a film of this age,
and for the most part it is minimal, but there are some scenes that are
noticeably grainier and softer than the rest of the film. There are also some
scenes where the blacks are a bit dark and oversaturated, leading to an inkiness
and loss of definition in some scenes. Whether these are problems of the
transfer, the source print, or the original cinematography is hard to determine;
in any case, these flawed scenes are few and far between, and should not detract
from anyone's overall enjoyment of the film.

The audio has been digitally restored as well, and is presented in Dolby
Digital 1.0 in the original Japanese. It lacks the scratches and hiss that one
might expect from such a source, but it does tend to sound a bit hollow and
distorted. This is particularly noticeable on the low end of the register, where
blaring bass tones are a bit overmixed and tend to distort and make one's
speakers vibrate weirdly. Part of this is due to the unique sound environment
Kurosawa tried to construct for this film, but it also seems to be a bit of a
flaw in the DVD audio treatment. Overall the audio does not seem as sharp and
clear as on other Criterion Kurosawa releases such as The Hidden
Fortress. This seems particularly true of dialogue, which comes across at
times as muffled or hollow. Mifune's famously bad enunciation seems to suffer in
particular.

Of particular interest on this disc is the inclusion of two separate sets of
English subtitles. In brief essays in the liner notes, Linda Hoaglund and Donald
Richie explain their approaches to translating Japanese films for
English-speaking audiences. Neither translation is completely literal; each one
attempts in a different way to translate Kurosawa's film in language that will
be accessible to audiences and still maintain some level of artistry and the
formalized language used both in the film and, to a lesser extent, the original
Shakespearean source. Richie is well-known to Kurosawa enthusiasts, having
written extensively on his films and having provided commentary tracks for other
DVD releases, notably Rashomon. He also has the distinction of having
been acquainted with Kurosawa, even having the good fortune to be present at the
filming of certain scenes from Throne of Blood. Hoaglund grew up in Japan
as the daughter of American missionaries; she explains that she was fully
immersed in both languages from a young age. Each of these experts have
extensive experience in writing subtitles for Japanese films. Of the two I
tended to prefer the Richie subtitles, as they seemed to be closer to a literal
interpretation of the dialogue. This was reinforced by comments made by Michael
Jeck during his commentary track. Jeck makes reference to specific bits of
dialogue that take on an increased significance in the context of Japanese
culture; Hoaglund's subtitles, while capturing the right feel and a more poetic
flow, sometimes tend to gloss over these elements. For example, early in the
film, Lord Tsuzuki receives word that Fujimaki's rebel faction has been
defeated. Hoaglund translates his message as simply an offer to surrender;
Richie captures the fact that he actually offers to shave his head. For those
familiar with Japanese samurai culture, shaving one's head (as Jeck notes here
and in his Seven Samurai commentary) is more than just a sign of
surrender. It means that one must renounce the world entirely, and has little
choice but to become a monk. This is surely more significant than just an offer
to surrender; it indicates cowardice, since the rebel leader is willing to
sacrifice his identity, his honor, and his stature as a samurai in order to save
his life. This is just once instance, but an important one, that leads me to
prefer Richie's subtitles to Hoaglund's. On the other hand, she uses the highly
preferable literal translation "Spider's Web Castle" as opposed to
Richie's vague "Forest Castle." Anyone wanting a fuller perspective on
the film will want to watch it at least once with each set of subtitles.

Printed materials and liner notes rarely count as extra features; Criterion
Collection discs are the great exception to this rule. Included with this disc
is a thick booklet of information, including an essay by Kurosawa scholar
Stephen Prince, whom readers might recognize from his commentary tracks on the
Red Beard: Criterion Collection and Ran: Masterworks Edition DVDs.
Prince discusses Kurosawa's adaptation of the Bard's work, and how Throne of
Blood is more than just a simple adaptation and translation of the Scottish
play. Also included, apropos of the subtitle discussion, are two short essays by
the translators, explaining their individual philosophies and approaches in
adapting Japanese dialogue for English-speaking audiences. Of the process,
Richie writes, "I suppose the way one ought to think of this enterprise is
not with chagrin that so much gets lost, but with surprise that so much gets
through."

As alluded to earlier, this disc also contains a commentary track by
Japanese film expert Michael Jeck. Jeck also provided the excellent commentary
track for Criterion's Seven Samurai disc. Jeck does not disappoint here,
providing insightful comments on both the making of this film and the culture it
portrays. He moves with ease from technical comments about Kurosawa's filmmaking
methods and style to deeper comments about the film's structure and meaning. He
also makes the point that this is probably the single greatest Shakespeare film
ever made, fully incorporating the heart of Macbeth while creating a
fully cinematic experience. With his inclusion, this disc therefore has
contributions from three of the most well-known Kurosawa experts in America: an
essay by Prince, subtitles and explanatory notes by Richie, and commentary by
Jeck. This is an excellent collection of supplementary material by any
standards. Rounding out the extra material is the original theatrical trailer
for Throne of Blood.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

The selection of extra material provided here is of excellent quality, but I
always wish for more, especially with these Criterion titles. The DVD could have
been even better with, for instance, an interview -- or even a full-blown second
commentary track -- featuring a noted Shakespeare scholar discussing
Macbeth and evaluating the Japanese version. There are many other things
that could have been done, but I guess we can't complain too much about the
information we have here.

Closing Statement

Not many people would presume to rewrite Shakespeare; it's hard to imagine
anyone but Kurosawa actually improving on the original. After seeing Throne
of Blood and Ran (based on King Lear), one almost wishes that
he had tackled other Shakespearean projects. In particular, it is tantalizing to
wonder what he or one of the other Japanese masters could have done with
Titus Andronicus, a play that is clearly not one of the Bard's best and
almost begs to be transported into a Japanese milieu, where it would probably
make quite a bit more sense.

The Verdict

Not guilty! Another gripping, beautiful film from the greatest director who
ever lived.

Criterion is acquitted as well, and released with the thanks of the court
for their usual excellent work.